1885 remaining in existance|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

Tyke said
Bert,

Any way of giving an educated guess at to how many 1885 High Walls are still in existence?

John  

John,

Your question can have more than one answer;  

1. If you simply want the number of them still exist, my best guess is 90%

2. If you want to know how many “factory original” high-walls still exist, that number is approximately 60%.

Keep in mind that there were 140,000 Single Shots manufactured, and of that number approximately 55% of them (77,000) were high-walls. with the remaining 63,000 being low-walls.  I am still working on my research survey to narrow down the total number of each type.  Thus far, I have found more than 48,000 of the Single Shots over the past 40-years… and there are a lot more of them still out there to find.  In the past 12-years, I have been concentrating my efforts to locate & survey all of the Single Shots in the 110000 – 140000 S/N range.  Currently, I have documented 8% of the late production S/Ns.

Tyke said
Interesting differentiation.  I gather that the 90% you refer to are those with non-factory modifications.  I was thinking in terms of factory originals so the 60% figure is what I am interested in.

Perhaps some info to add to your research;  I just purchased an 1885 “thick-side” in .40-82.  It has a 30″ #3 Bbl., single trigger.  Serial number 68727 applied Sept. 6, 1894.  But, based on the Red Book the serial number (if I’m not mistaken) implies an 1893 manufacture ???  The bore is a 9 out of 10 and the wood is plain but quite nice.  The only really noticeable light dings and mars are about 6-8 ” down from the “rifle” type butt plate, which implies to me that the rifle was most likely carried in a scabbard for a fair portion of its life.  But that’s a guess on my part.

If you happen to know, I’d like to know the rate of twist for the .40-82.  I plan on shooting it with BP loads using a 260 gr. bullet.  

You must have misread the table in the Red Book… it clearly lists S/N 66163 as the last rifle manufactured in the year 1893, and 71020 as the last S/N in 1894.

I sincerely doubt that any high-wall with a 30-inch No. 3 barrel was ever “likely carried in a scabbard”.

The rate of twist should be 1:28.

Bert